


help (not just anybody)

by challaudaku



Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:06:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26144584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/challaudaku/pseuds/challaudaku
Summary: Albert’s noticed that there's a lot of fights when you’re a newsie. He hasn’t been a newsie for very long — only a couple of months — but he’s gotten into more than a few scuffles already. He’s not concerned about himself — he can hold his own.But he’s not the only newsie.
Relationships: Albert DaSilva/Crutchie
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	help (not just anybody)

Albert’s noticed that there's a lot of fights when you’re a newsie. He hasn’t been a newsie for very long — only a couple of months — but he’s gotten into more than a few scuffles already. He’s not concerned about himself — he can hold his own.

But he’s not the only newsie.

“Do ya need help?” he asks, leaning down and offering his arm out to Crutchie. Crutchie, from his position on the floor, glares at him.

“ _ No, _ ” Crutchie says, quite adamantly.

Albert leaves his hand there for a second, not really sure how to reply. He wasn’t rude, right? He’s not sure if he was.

Crutchie, ignoring Albert’s outstretched hands, rolls over and forces himself up, wobbling on his one good leg and reaching for his crutch from where it was knocked to the ground by Oscar Delancey. Albert decides to ignore Crutchie ignoring him and goes around him to get his crutch for him.

Crutchie glares at him when Albert hands it out to him, and Albert honestly doesn’t know what he did.

“I don’t need your help,” Crutchie mutters, snatching it out of Albert’s hand and putting it under his arm. 

Albert opens his mouth to say  _ something _ , but Crutchie shuffles away before he gets the chance to.

Albert’s doing great as a newsie.

.

“Look,” Crutchie says, after Albert offers him help climbing the fire escape, “I appreciate the gesture, but I  _ don’t _ need help.”

Albert frowns, because he can see Crutchie clearly struggling to climb it. He looks like he needs some help. They make it up the fire escape twenty minutes later, and Crutchie slumps down to the floor of the roof.

“I don’t get it,” Albert says finally, shaking his head as he watches Crutchie. Albert’s been a newsie for well over a year and he’s offered Crutchie help plenty of times and he’s gotten rejected just as many times.

“Get what?” Crutchie asks, watching as Albert sits across from Crutchie.

“Ya  _ do _ need help, sometimes,” Albert tells Crutchie, crossing his arms. “But ya always refuse it. I don’t get it.”

Crutchie lets out a little clicking noise. “I can make it on my own,” he tells Albert. Then, quieter, as if he’s saying it more to himself, “I  _ need _ to make it on my own.”

Albert wants to argue that accepting help every once in a while doesn’t mean he can’t make it on his own. That’s not how it works.

He stays silent.

.

Albert ends up kissing Crutchie, a year later. It’s been building up, really, over the two and half years that they’ve known each other, until Albert realizes that he can just  _ kiss Crutchie _ .

So he does.

And it’s brilliant.

Except there’s still one thing that bothers him about his relationship with Crutchie.

“Please let me help you,” Albert whines, digging his toes into Crutchie’s bad leg. Crutchie looks over at Albert and shifts on the lodging bed they’re sitting on so that he can cup Albert’s face with his hand. 

Albert thinks, for a moment, that Crutchie is about to kiss him and he still gets stupidly excited over it. He forgets what he initially said for just a second until Crutchie says simply, “No.”

Albert frowns.

“Please,” Albert asks, because it’s winter and it’s cold and it’s about to become damn near impossible to sell a decent amount of papers every morning.

“I don’t need help,” Crutchie says, and Albert knows that it’s flat out  _ not true _ .

“I don’t want to help you because of your leg,” Albert says, moving around to straddle Crutchie’s lap. He cups Crutchie’s head in both of his hands, effectively making Crutchie look at him. “I want to help you because you’re my  _ friend _ . Because you’re my —” Albert cuts himself off because he doesn’t know how to describe his relationship with Crutchie, not really, but friend seems like such an inadequate word.

Crutchie clenches his jaw and his eyes glance away from Albert’s face, looking around the room instead.

“I don’t  _ want _ help,” Crutchie amends.

Albert doesn’t think that works with him because — “I want to help you.”

Crutchie closes his eyes and Albert takes the opportunity to lean and press a small, soft kiss to Crutchie’s lips.

“‘Snot fair to yourself if you freeze on the ground because you refused to let anyone help you up when a Delancey knocks you down,” Albert says against Crutchie’s lips, poking a finger into his stomach. Crutchie sighs and tilts his head forward to kiss Albert again.

“Snot,” Crutchie repeats back, a little chuckle escaping his lips. Albert groans and puts his head down on Crutchie’s shoulder.

“Please just let me help you stand up,” Albert pleads, his face in Crutchie’s neck. “Just once.”

Crutchie lets out a little breathy laugh and he’s quiet for a moment before saying, “Just once.”

Albert’s going to save that promise for later.

.

Crutchie looks up at Albert, not at all amused at the bridal position he’s in in Albert’s arms.

“You said just once,” Albert says, knowing full well he’s probably stretching Crutchie’s words, just a little bit.

Crutchie rolls his eyes, but he lets Albert carry him away.

**Author's Note:**

> (for challenges, feel free to ignore)  
> auction - day 7, auction 2 - disability, immobility (865 words by gdocs)  
> character appreciation - Non-Canon: Disability!AU (Lizzy will love you forever); elizabeth’s empire - (au) disability; scamander’s case - (trait) unlucky


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